Day 29

Today’s experiment was “what can I do with a brayer?” I loved the result of this, and it was great fun. I used a pale neutral shade of acrylic paint and brayered it over the paper, then dripped ink onto it and went over it with the brayer again. Repeat until satisfied. Then I drew the sunflowers in bronze Sharpie. I have a gold one somewhere, but could I find it? No, I could not. Never mind, the bronze works perfectly well.

Day 30

Inks: Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Plum Twist and Blue Lime.

Final page, back cover tomorrow! I was a bit stumped for inspiration today, as well as being short of time. I decided to have another go at the “removing ink with water” thing which had not entirely worked on day 17. I used different inks though; Cosmic Shimmer Mist spray inks in green and purple, with a quick paper mask cut into a vague flower shape. After spraying the inks I applied the water first with another spray bottle, dabbing off the droplets with kitchen towel, and then with a paint brush. This meant I could write into it, again dabbing off the excess water to leave the writing in a paler colour.

Day 31

I had an idea today, and it sort of worked. I mixed some structure paste with ink (I was aiming for salmon pink but didn’t quite get it), spread it on the board I’d picked for the back cover, and laid some bubble wrap over it for texture. Then left it to dry for a long time. Then I removed the bubble wrap and left it to dry a bit more. Once the textured surface had hardened (I may have got impatient and used a heat gun), I splattered some more of the red and yellow ink on top, and when that had dried, I went over the piece with the blue ink pads, highlighting the texture.

31 days, with a new piece every day! Okay, so I’m not crazy about all of them, but I completed the challenge, and I have a few new techniques to incorporate into some longer pieces later on.